Improved eyelet



E. PARKER.

" Eyeiet.

Patented Aug. 23,1864.

No. 43.954. I

N. FETER$ Pholo-I-Mvowhor, Wnhlnpon. l1 0 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

EDWARD PARKER, OF MIDDLETOWN, CONNECTICUT, ASSIGNOR TO HOTCHKISS MANUFACTURING COMPANY.

IMPROVED EYELET. I

To aZZ whom it may concern.-

Be it known that I, EDWARD PARKER, of Middletown, county of Middlesex, and State of Connecticut, have invented a new and useful Improvement in the Manufacture of Eyelets; and I do hereby declare that the following is a full, clear, and exact description whereby I ain enabled to produce a cheaper and better article than that hitherto made, as will be hereinafter described.

To enable others skilled in the art to make and use my invention, I will describe its construction and operation.

The great object of my invention is to avoid the necessity of spreading out the piece of metal to form the opening through the small end of the eyelet. This process of punching or tearing an opening through the piece of metal leaves a rough or burr edge, which requires to be filed or ground off even, and in this filing of the eyelets a burr will still be left on each side of the small end, which is very objectionable, and which I desire to obviate.

The process of making myeyelets consists in stamping from any suitable sheet metal, and by any suitable means, small disks a, having a circular hole through their center, as shown in Fig. 1. These perforated disks or blanks a are subjected to the action of suitable swaging-tools and forced into the cup form represented in Fig. 2, after which the bell shape represented in Fig. 3 is obtained by subjecting the cups of Fig. 2 to dies of the proper form.

It will be seen by reference to Figs. 4, 5, and 6, which represent the different stages in the manufacture of the old form of eyelets, that an imperforated disk of metal is stamped into the cup form represented by Fig. 5, after which the convex bottom 9 is filed ofl', leaving the open bottom represented in Fig. 6. This latter manipulation of the eyelets requires the expenditure of a great deal of time and labor and involves the necessity of handling the eyelets after they have left the machine. Indeed, under this old mode of making eyelets they are not and cannot be finished by machinery adapted for pressing them into shape, and the labor of finishing them is greater than that required to fashion the pieces of metal.

By stamping holes through the disks a the necessity for filing the eyelets is avoided, as there will be no burrs left 011 the small ends of my eyelets when they leave the formingtools.

It will be seen'that my improved eyelets are produced by crowding the disks of metal into shape, thus obtaining a substantial and compact form, while the old eyelets are pro duced by drawing and spreading the metal, so that the eyelets thus made are generally weak and more or less imperfect.

I am aware that Lucien E. Hicks obtained a patent on an eyelet-making machine December 17, 1850; but in his patent he does not describe nor contemplate making eyelets from fiat-surfaced disks which are perforated in the center previously to swaging the metal into shape; therefore \Vhat I claim is- The use of perforated flat-surfaced disks in the manufacture of eyelets, substantially as described.

Vitnesses: EDWARD PARKER.

P. M. WRIGHT, Aucusrus PUTNAM. 

